Nanton barrel racer Lindsay Sears torn by which horse to ride at the WNFR

Dwayne Erickson, For the Calgary Herald12.04.2012

Lindsay Sears is torn by which horse to ride during the National Finals Rodeo, which starts today in Las Vegas. Martha, above, injured a tendon not long after this photo was taken during the 2012 Calgary Stampede, but is now healthy. Sears has been riding on backup Moe since then.

Lindsay Sears’ highly-regarded and popular sorrel mare Martha has always been the reigning world champion barrel racer’s starter at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

But, as little as 10 days ago, she was resigned to going with her nine-year-old backup bay gelding Moe for all 10 rounds of the competition which begins tonight.

Martha, a 12-year-old sorrel, hasn’t been ridden much since damaging a tendon in pouring rain and sloppy ground conditions during the last round of the Calgary Stampede in July.

As the WNFR approached, Sears had an MRI done on the mare and word came back that she was good to go.

“Now, I don’t know what the hell to do,” she snickered at the time. “My gut feeling was Moe and usually I go with my gut feeling.”

But, as late as Wednesday afternoon, the 31-year-old from Nanton, Alta., still hadn’t come to a decision.

“I’ll make it first thing (Thursday) morning,” she said. “I’ll try to figure out which one will handle the ground the best.”

Sitting second in the world standings, Sears will be running at the bottom of the ground, second last of the 15 finalists.

“Both horses have been real fresh, fractious since I arrived in Las Vegas on Monday, especially Martha because she’s been off since the last weekend in September,” Sears reported. “She’s real strong and aggressive, but a little rusty. Moe felt a little sharper because he ran at the Canadian Finals Rodeo three weeks ago and worked all six rounds at Edmonton.

“I don’t know,” she chuckled. “I guess it’s a good problem to have two horses ready to go and in other ways it isn’t a good situation because I’m standing here always questioning myself.”

But, decision time will be first thing this morning.

“It’s an all-day process getting my pick ready; I have therapies to do, the horse gets iced and lasered; there’s a lot more work to do on the day the horse runs.”

One thing Sears does know: “It’s going to be a daily decision. I got two really good horses and I’m not afraid to use either one of them.”

Basically, it’s been Martha’s workload from start to finish every year except when she turned up lame after the ninth round in 2010. But, it appears Sears is intent on splitting up the duties over these next 10 days.

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Nanton barrel racer Lindsay Sears torn by which horse to ride at the WNFR